Narses (Sassanid)

Narses (334-371 AD) was a nobleman of the Sassanid Empire who joined the Eastern Roman Empire after a bribe in 371 AD. He attempted to join a Roman army invading Persia during the Sassanid Civil War, but was killed after many defeats.

Biography
Narses was a tedious speaker and unlucky leader, and was posted far away from civilization in the desert behind Ctesiphon, on the edge of the known Roman world. Narses was a competitor for the Persian throne during the Sassanid Civil War, effectively a war between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire bribed Narses, along with fellow nobles Buran and Kuru, to join their army, and they sent Equitius Flavius to aid them in their war.

Narses was isolated from the large coalition army that had captured Hatra, and was in command of only his bodyguards, a unit of mercenary onagers, and a unit of spear cavalry. He marched to meet up with the others, but was intercepted in Assyria by Emperor Shapur II of Persia himself. First defeated by Shapur and later by other Sassanid armies, Narses did not survive his army's journey to join Equitius' force on the Tigris.